GNG1106

Fundamentals of Engineering Computation

Lecture 2

Instructor: Mohammad Al Ridhawi

University of Ottawa

Winter 2025

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 First Program Explained

Outline

1 First Program Explained

2 Variables

3 More on printf

4 scanf

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 First Program Explained

First Program

#include <stdio.h>
/* This is our first program */
int main()
{
printf("Hello World!\n");
return 0;
}

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 First Program Explained

Preprocessing Directives

All lines that begin with # are preprocessing directives

These commands are processed before compiling the C code.
e.g., #include<stdio.h>
In this case, the directive tells the compiler to include a file named
stdio.h into the code before compilation. This file contains
standard I/O (Input/Output) function headers and other
definitions related to standard I/O.
There is no ; after a preprocessor directive.

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 First Program Explained

Comments

A block of code that begins with /* and ends with */ is a

comment block.
Anything written in a comment block is ignored by the compiler
and does not generate anything in the executable code.
A comment block may span multiple lines, if needed.
Comments may also be written using “//”, placed anywhere on a
line
Anything written to its right in the same line is treated as a
comment and ignored by the compiler.
This is actually C++ syntax.
Comments are written for humans, not for computer or compilers.
Comments are meant to serve as the internal documentation of the
program.
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 First Program Explained

The main Function

The main function is required for every program.

Usually int main() (more recommended) or void main() is used
as the function header.
The code enclosed in the pair {· · · } of braces is the instruction
block.
A program in C begins by executing line by line the instruction
block.
Each instruction in the block must end with semi-colon “;”
When the header of the main() function is “int main()”, the
ending instruction in the block should be “return 0;”.
However this command should not be included if the header is
“void main()”.
C is case-sensitive: the compiler treats ABC and abc as different
things.
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 First Program Explained

printf

The line
printf("Hello World\n");
calls a standard I/O function printf(), which prints out the
desired message to the screen.
standard output (“stdout”) = screen
standard input (“stdin”) = keyboard
The message to be written is included in a pair of double quotes.
The message together with the quotation marks is the input to the
function printf()
“\n” is called an “escape sequence”; it positions the cursor at the
beginning of the next line after the message is printed.

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 Variables

Outline

1 First Program Explained

2 Variables

3 More on printf

4 scanf

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 Variables

The basic object in any computer language is a variable.

A variable stores a value.
A variable is essentially a group of memory units (ie, byte).
The type of a variable implies:
how much memory it takes to store a value of this type, (e.g. it
takes less memory to store an integer value than a real value), and
how the value of the variable is encoded into bytes (and hence how
the bytes should be interpreted into a value).
Every variable has an address.

Highlight
The memory can be thought logically as an array of bytes, each having
an address. If we think of each byte as a house, the memory is a street
lined up with houses, and street number of a house is the address of
the byte.
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 Variables

Before a variable is used, it must be declared, or “created”.

A variable is declared using syntax like this:
int x;
This declaration means: “create” an int-typed variable whose name
is “x”. There are other types, e.g., float, double, etc.
int stands for “integer”
More accurately, with this command, the program requests the
operating system (OS) to allocate a block of 4 bytes (noting that
int-typed values are represented by 4 bytes) and reserve it for
storing the value of x.
If this command is successfully executed, the OS will also remember
the address of the first byte in the reserved block (this address is
also referred to as the “address of x”) for future access of the
variable x.
For example, if later the program wants to get the value of x, the
OS will, based on the address of x, find the block of 4 bytes, and
convert it to a number.
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 Variables

Variable assignment is done using syntax like this:

x=3;
where we have assumed that the variable x has been declared to
have int type.
The “=” sign in this line does not mean “equals” or “is equal to”.
It means: assign value 3 to variable x.
The execution of this command involves
1 converting the value 3 to an 4-byte representation (assuming x has
been declared as int) , and
2 storing the 4 bytes to the block of memory reserved for x.
If that memory reserved for x previously has stored some value,
the value will be replaced by (the 4-byte representation of) the
new value, 3.

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 Variables

Variable Name

A variable name is not allowed to begin with a number.

Reserved words are not allowed to be used as variable names.
e.g., if, else, while ... cannot be used as variable names.
Certain characters reserved as operators are not allowed in a
variable name.
e.g., +, -, ... are reserved to represent addition and subtraction etc;
they cannot be used as variable names.
Declare two variables having the same type: e.g. float a, b;
Declare a variable and initialize its value at the same time: e.g.,
int y=5;
Use descriptive variable names! e.g, use student_1 instead of s1
It will be much easier for YOU to remember what it means
It will be much easier for OTHERS to understand your code
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 More on printf

Outline

1 First Program Explained

2 Variables

3 More on printf

4 scanf

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 More on printf

printf("%d", 100);
printf("%f", 101.3);
printf("%d", integer_1);
printf("%f", real_1);
The %d is the conversion specifier used to print out an integer and
the %f is the specifier used to print out a real number.
The conversion specifier must match the data type.
A conversion specifier always begins with a %
The specifier must be enclosed in a pair of double quotes
A conversion specifier is like a “space holder” for the object, in the
to-be-printed message.

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 More on printf

More than one “object” can be printed using a single printf

For example:
printf("%d pounds and %d feet tall\n", weight, height);
If the values of variables weight and height are 140 and 7, the line
prints:
140 pounds and 7 feet tall
The arguments to printf are separated by a comma
To print % as part of the message, use two percent symbols %%.

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 scanf

Outline

1 First Program Explained

2 Variables

3 More on printf

4 scanf

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 scanf

Data can be entered from the keyboard (a.k.a, standard input, or

stdin) using the standard C function scanf, e.g.
scanf("%d", &integer_1);
scanf("%f", &real_1);
scanf("%d%f", &integer_1, &real_1);
scanf requires the conversion specifier to correspond to the type
of data to be read.
An ampersand & must be placed before the variable into which the
data will be read.

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 scanf

Programming Example

Write a program that does the following. It asks the user to guess and
enter the temperatures of tomorrow at noon and at night. It then
prints a message about this information. (Also try to print a message
showing the temperature difference —we have not formally introduced
arithmetic operations, such as subtraction, but why not give it a guess
and try?).

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 scanf

Coding Demonstration

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